1960s Platinum Diamond Emerald IWC International Watch Company Bracelet Watch

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1960s Platinum Diamond Emerald IWC International Watch Company Bracelet Watch

About the Item

A Rare 1960s Platinum Diamond Emerald IWC - International Watch Company Cocktail Bracelet Watch Basic Specifications -155mm Fits up to Wrist Size *Can be resized extended or tapered as necessary as a complimentary service with purchase Case Dimensions & Special Features - 20mm Diameter Dial excluding diamond bezel - 44 Brilliant Round Cut Diamonds, 4 Emerald totaling approximately 3.5 carats Catalog Note The present example is a beautifully created post world war two 1960s Platinum Diamond & Emerald Set Bracelet watch by IWC ( International Watch Company). The timepiece is also accompanied by its original IWC box and comes recently serviced and is in excellent condition. The bezel and dial design concept are elegantly set with approximately 44 brilliant round cut diamonds to allow the piece to appear more as a gemset emerald diamond bracelet moreso than a conventional wristwatch design. During this timeframe, it was still considered rude to check the time in the company of others and as a result special commissions were ordered to be designed to appear more as bracelet then a conventional wristwatch. Additionally interesting to note is that due to the world wars , platinum was extremely scarce as a result of its use and therefore only reserved by the top firms creations for their most important designs and special client orders. Aside from the fact that IWC was primarily a men's timepiece firm and only a few examples were produced for the women’s market, the present example designed in platinum makes it an especially unique and interesting example to acquire for ones collection and the additional incorporation and use of emerald cabochons on either side add further to its sophistication as the emerald accents demonstrate the firms’ likely inspiration that they were pulling from the allure of far away exotic lands as they created the design concept. The use of emerald cabochons in such a pyramid manner is typical for middle eastern and asian market designs and combined with the playful gemsetting shapes found at either end where the diamonds are set on the strap to meet the emeralds create an overall sophisticated look on the wrist as well as added comfortability when a mesh bracelet design is applied as the present example is designed with and finished with a jewelry fold locking clasp. Mesh bracelet concepts are often the designer choice due to their ease of wear and ability to remain suddle so they continue to allow the timepiece to appear as a thin bracelet on the wrist. Overall the present timepiece is an excellent example by one of the most premier houses.

Creator:
IWC
Case Material:
Platinum
Stone:
Diamond,Emerald
Stone Cut:
Emerald Cut
Case Dimensions:
Width: 0.79 in (20 mm)Diameter: 6.11 in (155 mm)
Style:
Retro
Place of Origin:
Switzerland
Period:
1960-1969
Date of Manufacture:
1960 - 1969
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
New york, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1212310000472

Shop All IWC

IWC

One of Switzerland’s major luxury watch companies was started by an American who saw the potential of bringing Switzerland’s superb watchmaking into the modern age through industrialized manufacturing and high-precision interchangeable parts. The New Hampshire–born watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones (1841–1916), who founded International Watch Company — known today as simply IWC — in 1868, was interested in “combining all the excellence of the American system of mechanism with the more skillful hand labor of the Swiss.”

Setting up the company with another American watchmaker, Charles Kidder, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Jones used hydropower from the River Rhine for his plant’s machinery. Rethinking watch design would lead to one of IWC’s early successes: the Pallweber pocket watch. Based on an 1883 patent by Austrian watchmaker Josef Pallweber, the watch employed numbered disks for jumping hour and minute displays, making it a pioneer in digital timekeeping.

After Johann Rauschenbach-Vogel took over the watch manufacturer in 1880, four generations of his family led IWC into the 20th century. In 1905, Ernst Jakob Homberger and his brother-in-law Carl Jung — the famed Swiss psychiatrist — acquired IWC. Homberger bought out Jung’s holdings in 1929, and in the 1930s, the company introduced pilot watches, which were particularly robust and aimed solely at the civil aviation industry. These durable wristwatches were designed specifically to remain operational during extreme temperature shifts. (As blue watch dials are particularly hot right now, IWC's blue-dial Big Pilot is having a moment.)

The company still operates alongside the river where it was founded, having gained an international reputation over the past 150 years for its elegant designs and expert craftsmanship. Vintage IWC watches are prized by collectors — of whom there are many these days — and while the company continues to guard its attention to detail and quality, it has pushed its classic designs forward with modern innovation intended to stand the test of time.

IWC’s 2013 Ingenieur watch collection, with its precision based on an inventive constant-force mechanism, looked back to a 1955 Ingenieur model that featured a durable soft-iron inner cage as well as a 1976 update by leading Swiss watch designer Gérald Genta that encased its mechanism in a sleek steel case. IWC has also had a recent push toward sustainability, designing watches that are made to last a lifetime and beyond and earning the highest environmental ranking of any Swiss watch company in a 2018 report published by the World Wide Fund for Nature Switzerland (WWF).

Find vintage IWC wristwatches, Art Deco–style pocket watches and more on 1stDibs.